“Saints watch over you,” said Rigg, and started to climb back down.
“Wait,” said Umbo. “Shouldn’t we have some of the provisions?”
Rigg laughed. “Umbo, to you it will be only an hour at the most. However long it takes the two of you to walk a mile together. You won’t get hungry. You won’t even have time to need to pee.”
“I need to pee right now.”
“Well, then, do it off the other side of the rock while I bring her up this one.”
Rigg climbed down and looked for Param.
She was nowhere to be found.
Rigg saw her path and realized that she was testing, after all. But she was moving faster than he had ever seen her go while invisible-which meant that she had actually sped herself up relatively little. He could even glimpse a shimmering in the air where she was, the shape of her-she was at the borders of invisibility.
But it still meant she was moving far more slowly than a normal walk. How far did she intend to go? Because the paths of their pursuers were coming closer all the time, and at the rate they were going, Rigg’s group wouldn’t have a lot of leeway. They needed time to cross the Wall before Umbo would be free to disappear with Param. It was irresponsible of her to use up precious minutes on an experiment. To her she had only been doing this for a minute or two, Rigg was sure. She hadn’t gone more than a few dozen yards into the Wall. How much would she learn from that?
She became visible.
She screamed.
Rigg ran straight for her, as did Olivenko and Loaf.
“I’ll get her!” cried Rigg. “Stay clear!” He already felt the grief and despair and terror filling his heart. He knew that he could never reach her, that all was lost. He knew why she had screamed.
She was staggering toward him, her face a mask of grief and madness. “Run to me!” he shouted. “Don’t disappear again! We haven’t time!”
In a moment he had reached her, but by now the fear was unbearable. His mind kept coming up with reasons for the fear. They were trapped in the Wall and would never get out. The earth would open up and swallow them. General Citizen was already there to kill them. Nothing would work, all would fail.
Param could not have gotten that far if she had been feeling like this as she moved invisibly into the Wall. And she could make it all end by going back into invisibility. But if she did, then there really would be reason to despair. Because by the time she came out of her slow movement, their pursuers would be too close and they’d never make it.
She was stronger than Rigg had feared. For that matter, he was stronger than he had known. Because not only did she not speed up her movement through time in order to end the torment, he did not beg her to, though he longed to.
They took another step, another, and suddenly they could feel the terror fading. Two more steps and they were free of it. Standing with the others.
“I had to know,” said Param. “I had to know if my pathetic little power would let us cross through.”
“Well?” asked Rigg.
“I felt it even in slow time,” said Param. “I thought my ability must have had no influence on it, it was so terrible. But when I returned to real time, it became far worse. Unbearable. As you felt it. So my power did work, and if I slow myself down even more, I think Umbo and I won’t feel it at all. Or not enough to care. And another thing. It doesn’t get worse. It quickly reaches the peak of torment, and continues like that the rest of the way across. That’s when I stopped-when I realized that it wasn’t getting any worse with each step I took. What we experienced there, my brother, I think that was the worst the Wall can do.”
“It was bad enough,” said Rigg.
“You’ve got tears and snot all over your face,” said Loaf. “Very unattractive.”
Rigg wiped his mouth and nose with a kerchief and then glared. “Get her up the rock, the two of you. Get her up there with Umbo and then get back down here and put on your packs. We’re going to have to run that mile if we’re going to get this done before General Citizen and his men get here.”
“General Citizen himself?”
“I know his path,” said Rigg.
“Not Mother, though,” said Param.
She would see for herself soon enough. “Mother too,” said Rigg.
“She came to see him catch us? To see us die?”
“Or to see us go through the Wall,” said Rigg. “They’re on horseback and they’re galloping now. Get up onto that rock!”
Fast as they went, it took five minutes for the two men to put Param atop the rock, get back down, and put their packs on.
“Ready?” asked Rigg.
“Yes,” said Olivenko.
“As I’ll ever be,” said Loaf.
Rigg led them the two steps to the ancient path they were going to follow, right where it entered the Wall. He held Loaf’s hand, and Loaf held on to Olivenko. Then, watching the path intently-for it was very faint and old-Rigg reached up and pumped the air with his fist.
At once he saw the path begin to reveal an animal racing along, over and over. No, he thought. It’s moving too fast, we’ll never keep up. But then he realized that was just the way the path worked. The animal was walking. As he had hoped.
He had never seen such an animal before. It was a little smaller than a deer, and it was obviously a plant- eater, not a predator-he had analyzed that correctly. But it wasn’t fur covering it, or scales-something more like feathers, but with barbs on the ends.
Oh, wonderful. I found a giant porcupine.
But he saw that as long as he laid his hand on it firmly and didn’t stroke upward, he wouldn’t be harmed.
Touch it, he told himself.
Yet he knew that if he made it panic, if it ran away, this would never work. He forced himself to watch the spot in the path where the creature’s line of sight had just passed him, where, by appearing exactly then, he could touch it before it knew he was there.
He reached out and laid his hand on the crown of its shoulder and at once began to match its pace. The feathers were harsh-feeling under his hand, but there was no pain. And all around him, the landscape was changed now. He was in the past. The sky was dazzling-it was noon here, and the climate was hotter. Not a cloud in the sky.
The animal bore his touch, his presence. Perhaps it had no fear of him because it had never seen or smelled a human being. Perhaps it didn’t believe its eyes. Perhaps this is how it showed fear, by continuing to move, its pace unchanged.
Rigg allowed himself to glance back and see that the others were still with him.
Olivenko was reaching out with his free hand. He touched the animal at the rump, just above where its thick, almost reptilian tail separated from the haunches. Still the animal did not bolt. Then Olivenko let go of Loaf’s hand, so Loaf could also touch the beast.
Once Loaf also had his hand on the animal’s back, Olivenko worked his way around behind it, making a light leap-pack and all-over the tail without losing contact with it-and then working his way up the other side until he was nearly parallel with Rigg.
No farther, come no farther forward, thought Rigg.
Olivenko didn’t hear him, but apparently he had sense enough to understand the danger. Keep out of its sight, that was the plan, for now Rigg could see that the eyes were not placed like a cow’s eyes, or a deer’s. They were pointed almost directly forward, like a lemur, an owl, a man. In their position right now they could not be seen. Perhaps the nerves in its skin were not as sensitive as in mammals’ skin. Perhaps the feathers kept it from feeling them as long as they made no sharp movements.
And for all they knew, they could let go of the animal entirely, now that they were in its time, and remain in the past. But Rigg couldn’t be sure of that. He had never gone so far back in time before. Without this animal to hold him firmly focused in this moment, could Umbo’s power hold them here?
